Path of Dragons-Chapter 79Book 8: : Homecoming

The density of the atmospheric ethera had decreased significantly, but that was as expected, given that Elijah had just conquered the Primal Realm. The stark difference was still a little shocking, and it was even more dramatic than what he’d experienced in Hong Kong. Hopefully, Lucy’s research would have already born some fruit, so he wouldn’t need to worry too much longer about another surge in power. Even if she hadn’t managed to figure out how to work with the seed to get the desired result, Elijah had some ideas of his own.

Because his experiences being immersed in a world of chimera had been enlightening. Often disgusting and always unnatural, but insightful nonetheless. Despite his hatred for everything it represented, Elijah was more than willing to use the knowledge he’d gained for the Earth’s benefit.

But then again, perhaps that had been the chimera’s original intent as well. And seeing how that had turned out definitely gave Elijah a little pause.

In any case, he set out through the tunnels, following them until he finally reached one of the safe zones Mako had shown him. Once he was there, he let the Shape of Venom fall away and, at last, stripped his armor off before taking a long and much needed shower. In the end, it took him almost an hour to scour his skin of all the filth he’d picked up during the last few weeks, and when he was finally clean, he felt the weight of true exhaustion pressing down upon him.

So, he broke out his camping supplies, slipped inside his tent, and curled up inside his Cloak of the Iron Bear. He was asleep in seconds.

Thankfully, he didn’t dream. Especially after the things he’d seen of late, if he did dream, it would have inevitably veered into nightmare. As it was, though, he awoke hours later, stiff, thirsty, and hungry. Rather than eat any of the monster meat in his Ghoul-Hide Satchel, Elijah resolved to wait until he returned to the island.

Or better, to Ironshore where he could visit his favorite greasy spoon and partake of all the fatty fried foods they had on offer. His stomach rumbled at the mere thought.

First, though, Elijah couldn’t stop himself from taking the reward from the Primal Realm. So, he finally acknowledged the notification informing him that he had emerged victorious:

Congratluations! You have conquered Chimeric Forge. Grade: S

Claim your reward?

[Yes] or [No]

Elijah’s eyes widened at his grade. In retrospect, he should have expected it. Primal Realms were not meant to be attacked alone, after all. Yet, he’d never even considered the possibility of an S-Grade. So, after seeing that, he was even more excited about the potential reward. He quickly affirmed his claim on the reward, and to his immense shock, two chests suddenly manifested on the ground before him. One was expected. Two…he didn’t know what to think about that.

One was tiny. Barely bigger than his fist, but it glowed with so much ethera that it shone in the visible spectrum. The other chest wasn’t quite as magical, but it looked impressive nonetheless. Predominantly gold, with blue trim and decorated with flowing glyphs, it looked strikingly similar to the chest that had contained the Antlers of the Wild Revenant.

However, Elijah suspected that the contents would be far superior, given that he’d gotten a C-Grade for conquering that Primal Realm. So, it was with no small degree of eagerness that he opened the larger of the two chests, revealing a new notification and a bundle of cloth inside.

Reward for conquering the Desolate Reach:

Mantle of the Chimera

Elijah reached inside, retrieving the bundle of glimmering cloth. It was light – almost like silk – though it very plainly was not so mundane a material. When Elijah shook it out, he saw that it was a hooded cloak. More importantly, the second he touched it, the material blazed with verdant light that traced thousands of tiny runes down the center. They encircled the hood and contrasted well with the otherwise black material.

It certainly looked powerful, and in the back of his mind, Elijah knew it would match very well with his antlers and the green fire of his scythe. Was that a coincidence? He certainly didn’t believe so, but he was too ignorant of how the system chose rewards to say for certain.

In any case, he very much wanted to get it identified as soon as possible.

But he was even more interested in what looked like a second reward. He hadn’t even realized such a thing was possible, but he supposed that getting an S-Grade in a Primal Realm deserved a bit of extra effort from the system.

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Elijah reached down and opened the small chest. When the lid flipped backward, he was nearly overwhelmed by the sheer ethera emanating from the object within. Only in retrospect did he realize that the glow hadn’t been from the chest itself. Rather, it had been from the contents. The chest just wasn’t strong enough to contain that level of energy.

His heart beat a little faster as his hand settled down on the object. He pulled it free, then stared at it with more than a little confusion.

It was a jar.

Sure, it had a fancy lid inscribed with thousands of tiny runes, and the glass from which the container was made bore even more glyphs. But it was still just a jar.

And inside was plainly dirt.

Elijah read the notification:

Reward (Bonus) for conquering Chimeric Forge

Primordial Loam

He knew from the feel of it that it was powerful. However, he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Sure, it was probably extremely useful – especially for him – but it just didn’t compare to getting a cool weapon or a shiny cape.

Still, getting rewards was always a bit anticlimactic for him because he had no idea what any of them did until he had the chance to get them identified. The same went for the Astral Loop he’d gotten from Eres. Sure, the Vey’thaalian had told him what it was, and he certainly had no reason to lie about it, but Elijah had seen a cursed item drive a man practically insane. Roman had clearly been a little unhinged from the beginning, but the sword Carmen had forged for him had driven him off the deep end. Elijah wasn’t going to chance having that happen to him.

So, he slipped everything into his Ghoul-Hide Satchel, then packed up his camp, and headed toward the surface under the Guise of the Unseen. As he went, he was very much tempted to use the Roots of the World Tree to instantly return to his grove, but he had something he very much wanted to do before he left the island above.

With his plan in mind, he gradually retraced his original path to the settlement where the crash survivors had lived for so long. To his surprise, it was no longer abandoned. Instead, it played host to a couple dozen rough-looking men and women that were clearly the people who’d separated from the main group. While he fully intended to save them – just as he’d rescued the others – Elijah had other things on his mind.

He’d given it a lot of thought, and after everything that had happened, he felt certain that his plan would work. He just needed to give it a good test. With that in mind, he headed back to the lair of the flesh spider. Most of the tendrils had already rotted, proving that it had not been replaced. So, he climbed the walls, then slipped through the crack and continued his ascent to the surface.

When he finally reached it and looked up at the night sky, he let out a low, hissing sigh. The sky above Vey’thaal had been similar to Earth’s, but the colors were all slightly off. That, coupled with the fact that it had multiple moons as well as the unfamiliar patterns of the constellations had rendered it entirely alien.

Seeing Earth’s sky – with its singular moon and familiar star patterns – was more of a relief than he ever could have expected. If the Shape of Venom had been capable of tears, he would have wept.

He’d spent months in the Primal Realm, and he hadn’t even realized the toll it had taken on his mind. Instead, he’d likened it to his experiences in his first tower – and there were similarities – but in retrospect, they weren’t even close to the same. Characterizing his time in Chimeric Forge as torture would not have been inaccurate.

Yet, he’d survived, as he kept telling himself. That counted for something and filled him with a certain degree of relief. Not a lot. It certainly didn’t completely banish the memories, but it helped.

However, now that Elijah was back on the surface, he couldn’t waste time just sitting around and appreciating the fact that he’d survived. He still had work to do, and a lot of it. So, he stalked across the island, noting that it was at least as desolate as it had been in his first visit. Soon enough, he reached the mountain, where he confirmed that the harpies were still in residence.

Again, he let out a sigh of relief. If they’d already started their migration pattern, his plan wouldn’t work. After all, he couldn’t kill them all if they were scattered across the mainland.

After about twenty minutes, Elijah found a shallow cave not dissimilar from the closet he’d used during the fight against the Prime Mechanique. He was forced to kill another resident – a creepy, lobster-frog hybrid that felt and looked just as disgusting as the description made it sound. The thing’s skin was almost entirely transparent, so as Elijah cut it in half with the Verdant Fang, he got a good luck at its odd biology. Soon enough, the thing was dead and he was ready to enact his plan.

Using the same strategy he’d employed in the Primal Realm, Elijah activated the Verdant Fang’s Nature’s Flame, then Dragon’s Echo. Tapping into the False Grove – which he’d arduously refilled during his recuperation – and used it to fuel Eternal Plague. Instantly, thousands of tiny flies filled the cave, then flitted outside in search of monsters.

Elijah didn’t specifically target the harpies. Instead, he intended to scour the entire island of any and all mutated monsters.

To that end, he pushed Eternal Plague just as hard as he had inside the Prime Mechanique, using Grove Conduit to enhance his ethereal regeneration and give him the fuel to conjure billions upon billions of flies.

As he did so, Elijah gained a steady stream of experience, telling him that his efforts at extermination were successful. Fortunately, the harpies weren’t terribly durable. Instead, they relied on the superiority of flight as well their potently venomous claws, coupled with overwhelming numbers, to down their prey. That played right into the advantages of Eternal Plague. The afflictions inflicted by each fly weren’t that powerful – at least in context of the creatures Elijah usually fought. However, what they lacked in potency, they more than made up for in numbers.

In the end, it was a massacre, and it was easy to imagine that a biblical-level plague had descended on the island, absolutely covering it with the affliction-carrying flies.

The only problem was that the resultant experience was more of a trickle than a stream. Even though he knew he killed hundreds of thousands of harpies – more if he counted the young that he suspected would give no experience at all – he only got a single level out of it before the experience ceased altogether.

It was the same issue he’d faced outside of Vey’thaal. He could only kill so many of a singular type of enemy before the system cut him off from experience.

By the time Elijah was spent, he knew that if any had survived, it couldn’t have been many.

After a spending a couple of hours recovering his ethera, Elijah shifted into the Shape of Venom and, just in case, adopted the Guise of the Unseen before venturing out of his cave.

It was not necessary.

His previous characterization of the event as a massacre was entirely inadequate for the sheer weight of death he’d inflicted upon the island. If Elijah had possessed any empathy at all for the mutated monsters, he might have vomited. Or his stomach might have twisted in guilt.

But he’d spent far too long in the Primal Realm to feel any remorse for his actions. Indeed, for the first time since he’d set foot on the island, it felt right.

With that task finished, Elijah shifted back into his human form, then took one look around, taking in the dead bodies and nodded. After taking a long, deep, and exhausted breath, he used Roots of the World Tree and, at long last, went home.